You can bring the kids if you like, but don’t come complaining to us if they have some awkward questions after. This is our annual revue of burlesque, drag, bawdy comedy, and adult circus - always the first night to sell out, always the biggest standing ovation. You don’t want to miss it.

ABOUT THE UMBRELLA FESTIVALIn 2012, The Alberta Rose Theatre joined forces with Noah Mickens of Wanderlust Circus to produce the first ever variety arts festival in Portland. The following year, veteran performer David “Leapin’ Louie” Lichtenstein added his lifetime of connections and expertise to the mix when he assumed the mantle of co-director. Since then, The Umbrella Festival of Circus and Comedy has brought together a fantastical mix of entertainers young and old; from the grand highways and hidden paths of The Endless Road that connects all the world’s cities like a circulatory system forged from asphalt and steel. With the help of our cousins from Seattle’s Moisture Festival, and a soon-to-be-inaugurated variety arts fest in San Francisco, we’re building an old-fashioned circuit to bring the global circus renaissance right to your doorstep!

This year’s festival includes TV star Daniel “Rubberboy” Browning Smith, outsider music legend Artis the Spoonman, nine traveling circus troupes, five bands, four members of the Cirque du Soleil, and solo practitioners of every description. Never has such a mob of bohemians been assembled beneath a single banner, on a single weekend, in a single theater! THE UMBRELLA FESTIVAL of Circus and Comedy is in full swing this Spring.